England’s Weekly Winners & Losers Week 5

In a week that saw his old youth team coach compare him to Neymar, Sancho produced an inspired 32 minute appearance to help Dortmund to a 3-1 win. With the game at 1-1 Sancho delivered a perfect cross fit Marius Wolf to put Dortmund ahead. Then he jinked into the box and his deflected pass found Pablo Alcácer for the third. That’s 3 assists in 4 games for Sancho, the calls for him to start are getting louder.

Sancho is impressing at the Westfalen

Jack Harrison

We delve into the Championship for another young winger having a good week. You may remember Harrison as the man who got an England Under 21 call up whilst playing for New York City. He’s now continuing his football education with Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds. In only his second start Harrison made himself an Elland Road hero by bagging the 89th minute equaliser at Millwall. With Kemar Roofe and Pablo Hernandez injured Harrison has the chance to establish himself as a regular with the Promotion Front Runners.

Fabian Delph

A good week all round for Delph, first he got an England start against Switzerland and then he came in for the injured Benjamin Mendy and gave an assured performance in his adopted position down the left as City trounced Fulham 3-0. There are more talented players than Delph at the Etihad but Delph remains a Pep favourite and senior squad player.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka

Continues to impress at Crystal Palace. Wan-Bissaka has pace going forward and looks comfortable in defence and was again outstanding as Palace got their second win of the season at Huddersfield. A star in the making and early contender for Young Player of the Year.

Danny Ings

OK his goal was only a penalty but that’s 3 in 5 for Ings whose found a fresh lease of life at Southampton. He looks sharp and with England’s centre forward options behind Kane and Rashford consisting of Danny Welbeck, he looks a sound bet for an October call up.

Losers

Eric Dier

Singling out one player from Tottenham’s flat performance against Liverpool is harsh, but Dier’s current form is footballing nominative determinism. His passing isn’t great, his positional sense is lacking for a defensive midfielder and it’s becoming increasingly strange that he remains undroppable. Needs to find some form.

Harry Maguire

Not a good day at the office for slab-head. Maguire and Morgan were given a torrid time by Josh King at Bournemouth. Everyone has an off day but this one was a shocker.

Jack Butland

Gareth Southgate has repeatedly stated it’ll be tough for Butland to retain his England place whilst in the Championship. Another poor display against Sheffield Wednesday seems to be making that even tougher.

English numbers in the Premier League

A depressingly familiar story played out a fresh chapter this weekend. The number of English players starting games last season averaged just north of 70. Two weeks ago Gareth Southgate spoke of the need to promote homegrown talent and to get people around the table to discuss it when the number dropped to an alarming 65, this week it was 63! Worse still 3 Premier League sides had no England qualified players in their starting 11. It seems Jadon Sancho is likely to be joined by a fair few of his countrymen in Germany come January.